


Darling, it is no joke, this is lycanthropy.

by Sherlocked



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/F, What if Bella was a Lesbian
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2018-03-21 19:25:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3703003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sherlocked/pseuds/Sherlocked
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twilight, if Bella was a lesbian. And less boring. And more aware of Edward's plentiful issues.</p><p>Uses Dialogue from the movies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Bella really wasn’t conflicted about leaving Arizona. She burned in the shade, she didn’t tan (she barely even freckled); she was basically the exact opposite of everyone else in her school. Hell, her _life_. 

Though, come to think of it, there really wasn’t much difference between the two. 

She was the type of person who the popular girls made friends with to make them feel charitable. For instance:

Samantha, Taylor, and Raven (the popular girls in school) wait semi-patiently for her to get out of the Mercedes convertible. Taylor (who’s driving, and whose car it is) plasters on a smile that’s as fake as her new nose.

“Have fun at your new school!” This was followed by a chorus of general platitudes, telling her not to be a stranger and to write. Bella, smiling awkwardly steps out of the car.

“Have a good-” Her foot hit a rock, almost tripping her up, her arms splaying to keep herself upright. When she’s done fighting the battle with gravity and wins, she turns to finish her sentence only to see the car almost out of sight, “Life.”

She turns when the door opens, and she smiles slightly to see her mother walk out of the house, equal parts worried and annoyed. Bella raises an eyebrow at her as she moves closer, taking the cell phone as it was waved in her face.

“It won’t work. Again.” Bella glances at the phone and smiles.

“That may be because you put it on hold.”

“I did?”

“Yup. And, look! You also called Mexico.” She grinned when Rene laughed.

“I’ll figure it out so you can reach me while me and Phil are on the road.”

“Very romantic.” Rene grinned at her as Phil came out, carrying Bella’s bags to the car.

“Yeah, probably not.” He rearranged the carry on so it fit next to her luggage.

Rene turned back to her, face suddenly serious, throwing Bella off. Rene was never serious, not if she could help it.

“You change your mind, call me, alright?”

“I won’t change my mind, mom. Trust me. It’ll be fine.”

~

There’s awkward conversation followed by awkward silence when Charlie comes to pick her up. They awkward her stuff up to her room and Bella looks around, fist clenching in a ball with the effort it’s taking not to cry.

Suddenly, there’s a honk outside, and Bella runs to see an old pick-up truck pull up.

She runs downstairs (almost tripping twice), meets Billy, bond with Jake about weird-ass fathers when Charlie tells her that the truck is her homecoming present. She beams.

It’s perfect.

~

Bella walks into Forks High School with little to no hopes of finding anyone she’ll connect with. Not that she’s not completely sure that she’ll be popular, at least for a little while, as the new girl. Once they got to know her, however, she wasn’t sure she’d continue to be popular.

She smiled awkwardly as the boys revolved around her, trying to make her like them by offering to put her in the newspaper, take her on the tour, or introduce her to everyone. She thought it was cute enough that she refrained from letting them know that she really doesn’t bat for their team.

Not that it was any of their business _anyway_.

(The photographer for the school newspaper seems disheartened by the news that there isn’t going to be a story on her.

“Sorry. You could always right about eating disorders or speedo padding on the swim team.” The girl- Angela- looks intrigued.

“That’s not a bad idea.” Bella smiled shyly and shrugged.

“Been known to happen.”)

She’d managed to make it through the day not hitting herself, dropping anything, or getting hit, which Bella chalked up as a win. She shoved her newly-acquired pile of textbooks into her locker and got dragged to lunch by the chick who had a crush on Mike.

Bella’d been eating, vaguely listening to Jessica explain the school to her while imagining her in Regina George hair, when the noise in the cafeteria lulled. Bella followed gazes to the group of pale (like, really pale: computer nerds she’d met on a school trip to NYC and had accidently walked into a LARP party had more of a tan than these people. They both look about the same amount of sleep-deprived, though.) kids who walked over to the only empty table in the cafeteria. Come to think of it, Bella hadn’t seen anyone even think of going over there.

Bella blinked, before raising an eyebrow slightly.

“Who’re they?”

“The Cullens.” Jessica leans forward. “Doctor and Mrs. Cullen's foster kids. They all moved down here from Alaska two years ago.”

“They kinda keep to themselves.” 

“Because they're all together. Like, _together_ together. The blonde girl, Rosalie, and the big dark-haired guy, Emmett, they're a thing. I'm not even sure that's _legal_.”

“They’re not actually related.”

“But they live together! And then there’s Alice, she’s weird, she's with Jasper, the blonde who looks like he's in pain.” Jessica snorted. “I mean, Dr. Cullen's like this foster dad/matchmaker.” Angela snickered.

“Maybe he’ll adopt me.” Bella smiled, and then looked back over.

“And the last one?”

“That’s Edward Cullen. He's totally gorgeous, _obviously_. But apparently, no one here is good enough for him. Like I care.” Bella raised an eyebrow at her, and Jessica flushed slightly before recovering. “Anyway, don't waste your time.”

Bella giggled, gesturing with a french fry.

“I _really_ wasn’t planning on it.”

She spends the rest of her lunch talking with her new friends. Every once and awhile, though, she gets the weird feeling that she’d being watched.

~

Mike takes Bella to Biology, and she gets assigned the seat next to Edward Cullen. She goes to sit next to him, and knocks someone’s bookbag over backpedaling at the _look_ he gives her.

She sits reluctantly, making a mental note to ask to either get 3rd period Bio or to get her seat switched. She does _not_ feel safe next to Cullen.

~

When she goes to check in at the office before leaving, Bella trips right back out the door when she sees Cullen, but not before she hears him ask to switch his 6th period class around.

At least the feeling was mutual.

Jerk.

~

That night, when Charlie takes her out to dinner (something Bella can’t see happening every night, and then offers to cook. Charlie looks sceptical until Bella reminds him of her mother’s distinct lack of cooking skills) she asks about the Cullens. She’s surprised by how ardently he jumps to defend them.

~

Bella, who’d gotten an email from the office saying she couldn’t switch classes, and her emails with Mr Molina the night before didn’t exactly inspire confidence (he’d managed to find three different ways why this was just first day jitters talking and she wasn’t getting moved), got to school early so she could confront Cullen and tell him to keep his problems to himself.

Of course, when she still had the confidence to actually confront him, Cullen wasn’t _there_.

~

Charlie gets her snow tires.

She isn’t exactly sure why this affects her so much (maybe because she’s so used to taking care of her mother, she’s not used to being taken care of) but it does, and she’s still floating on the extremely unfamiliar feeling when he tells her he’s going to help the sheriff’s department in Mason County about an animal attack.

She tells him to be careful, and every time she passes the parking lot, she smiles at her tires.

The aforementioned feeling is what gives her the courage, when she walks into Biology and sees Cullen at their table, to walk up to him and confront him.

A plan which is _yet again_ derailed when Cullen looks up at her.

“Hello.”

Any connection to her brain to her mouth is temporarily put offline by the fact that, not only was he acknowledging her presence in a way that doesn’t look homicidal, but he was _talking_. 

Bella may need a minute.

“I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. My name is Edward Cullen.” Cullen pauses to let her answer, but Bella’s still taking her minute. “You’re Bella.”

“I- yeah.”

They get through the project (which she’s already done) quickly, making awkward small talk while they worked. Cullen isn’t all that bad, actually, though he does get a little creepy towards the end with the whole, “You’re very hard to read” _intense stare_ thing. She blinks, more confused than intimidated.

“Did you get contacts?” The glare cut off, his eyes widening with surprise. “Your eyes changed color.” Cullen swallows and stalks off, muttering something about fluorescents.

Oh-kay then...

~

The next day at lunch, she sits down and Eric turns to her immediately.

“La Push, baby, you in?” Bella raised an eyebrow.

“Am I supposed to know what that means?” Mike leaned forward eagerly.

“La Push beach, down on the Quileute rez. We're all going after school. Big swell coming in.” Eric leered.

“And I don't just surf the internet.” Jessica rolled her eyes.

“Eric, you stood up once. On a foam board.” Bella is going to say no so fast it’ll make their heads spin when a hand lands gently on her elbow. Angela smiles shyly.

 

“There's whale watching, too. Come with.” 

Bella starts to recant when Eric repeats, “La Push, baby!” with a eyebrow wiggle that he probably thinks is hot. Instead, it makes her giggle.

“I'll go. _If_ , and only if, you stop saying that.”

Later, in Biology, they’re back to their awkward lab doing/small talk making routine when Bella asks,

“Are you going to the beach? It’ll probably be fun; sand fleas, wind burn, salt water stinging your eyes...” She smiles slightly at the miniscule smile she gets from Edward as he leans into the microscope.

“Which beach?”

“La Push, I think?” The smile shrinks slightly, and Bella raised an eyebrow. “Is there something wrong with La Push?”

“It’s just a little crowded.” If Edward thought his glance in Mike’s direction was subtle, he was very wrong.

Oh well. Awkward bonding between lab partners would have to be limited to class, then.

~

It’s fucking _freezing_ by the time they pull out to La Push. Everyone but Bella and Angela suit up to go surfing, leaving them to wander by the driftwood.

“I keep thinking Eric's going to ask me to prom, then he just... doesn't.”

“Take control then.” She looked uncertain. “Take control. You're a strong, independent woman.” Angela looked skeptical.

“I am?” Bella didn’t know whether to laugh or reassure when she heard someone yelling her name. She smiled when she saw Jacob, and walked back to the parking lot, meeting him where the others were still getting suited up.

“Hey, Jacob. Are you stalking me?”

“You’re on my rez, remember? You surfing?”

“ _Definitely_ not.” Jessica smirked, teasing.

“Her date bailed.” The smirk melted slightly when Mike straightened up.

“Date? What date?”

“She invited Edward.” Bella shrugged, confused.

“Just to be polite.” 

“I think it's nice she invited him. No one ever does.” Angela smiled her support while Mike started tugging on his zipper violently.

“Because Cullen's a freak.” One of the boys who came with Jacob nodded

“You got that right.” She cocked her head.

“You know them?”

“The Cullens don't come here.”

She sees Jacobs warning look, and leaves Angela with his entourage (in her defence, Angela looks like she’s enjoying herself, and Eric looks less than pleased) to get him to tell her _why_ they don’t like the Cullens. It takes some god-awful flirting (and, yes, she knows it’s bad, he isn’t her type, _at all_ ) but he tells her a story.

“It's just an old scary story. Did you know the Quileutes are supposedly descended from wolves?

“Like fur, fangs ... doggy breath?” This prompts a chuckle, and Bella smiled and pulled the conversation back on track.“So the legend about the Cullens is?”  
.  
“Well, they're supposedly descended from this ‘enemy clan’, but they claimed to be different, so we made a treaty with them.”

“Didn't they just move here?”

“Or just moved back.” Bella raised an eyebrow at Jacob’s spooky voice.

“Riiiight. So, what was this treaty?” Jacob leaned in, his voice dropping to a whisper.

“If they promised to stay off Quileute lands, we wouldn't expose what they really were to the pale-faces-”

He was cut off by a blood curdling scream, and they both whip around to see Eric chasing Angela with a dead crab. They glanced at each other and smiled. 

Bella was about to get him to finish his story when Jacob got called back over to his friends. Recognizing a lost cause when she saw one, Bella waved him off and turned to continue down the beach.

“Vampires.” Bella almost tripped as she turned towards the voice, but the girl caught her. She’d been in the background when Jacob and his friends had gotten there, obviously not all that interested in the visitors. 

“W-what?” The girl held on until Bella was stable, and then stuck her hands back into her hoodie.

“Quote, ‘if they promised to stay of Quileute lands, we wouldn’t expose what they really were to the pale faces, vampires,’ unquote.”

“Oh.” Bella could feel her cheeks start to heat up, and the girl looked at her with a pitying expression.

“I’m Leah.”

“Bella.”

“Ah, so _you’re_ the one Jacob keeps talking about.” Bella blinked before her forehead furrowed.

“He talks about me?”

“Yup. He’s got a bit of a crush on you.”

“Oh, _awesome_.” Leah looked surprised as she barked out a laugh. “What?”

“No, it’s just most people would probably have started hyperventilating by now and asking if their hair was okay.”

“Yeah, he’s...not my type.”

“Ah, okay.” There was a moment of silence before Bella looked up from the ground.

“So. Descended from wolves, huh?” Leah rolled her eyes.

“It’s _really_ long and involved, are you sure you want to know?”

“Sure. I mean,” Bella turned towards the surf and gestured at the shrieks echoing from them. “It’s not like I really have anything better to do. Not that I-” Leah waved off her apologies and took a deep breath, letting it out in a long suffering sigh.

“Alright, so, when he _said_ wolves, he _meant_ ancient spirit warriors. Legend has it that warriors and chiefs could leave their bodies and wander as spirits, communicate with animals, and hear each other's thoughts. Now one of them, a warrior named Utlapa, wanted to use the power to take over a couple of neighboring tribes, but the leader, Taha Aki, said fuck no and sent him on his way. Now, every once and awhile, the chief hides his body and does a tour of the reservation, checking for weaknesses and intruders and the like. Utlapa followed him, possessed the Chief’s body before killing his own so Taha Aki couldn’t come back, and went back, taking over the tribe, and doing exactly what he wanted. It took a while, but Taha Aki found a wolf in the woods who he thought was a prime specimen of wolfitude and asked to share the body. The wolf agreed, and they went back to the tribe. He tried to convince the tribe that it was him by _yelping Quileute songs_.” There was a slight pause for a giggle break, and then Leah composed herself. “It worked-hmm. ‘Scuse me. It worked just as well as one could expect, but a elder figured it out and ignored the false chief’s orders not to go into the spirit world and went to talk to the wolf. The false chief freaked and killed the elder, which so enraged Taha Aki that he lept, lept to kill Utlapa, but his emotions were too much for the poor wolf, and he turned into a magnificent human, the glorious flesh interpretation of Taha Aki's flawless spirit. The false chief was killed, and things were rapidly set right.” 

There was another pause while Bella finished laughing at the expressive hand gestures that Leah had used to accompany the last part. From her spot on the ground, where she’d been left when her legs had given out from under her, she grinned up at Leah, who was leaning over her with an amused expression.

“I take it you’ve heard that story once or twice.”

“Maybe a couple times. You need help?”

“Yeah.” Leah pulled her up easily and helped her brush off all the sand. 

“Where was I?”

“Things were rapidly set to right.”

“Ah, yes.” Leah mentally re-aligned herself. “He had a bunch of kids, all male, and when they ‘reached the age of manhood’, they could turn into wolves, too.”

“So, it was purely coincidental. You could have been werechipmunks.” Leah raised an eyebrow.

“Theoretically, yes.” Leah cocked her head. “Come to think of it, we probably would have gotten told less stories about it if we were werechipmunks.”

“Hmm.” Bella cocked her head. “Do you have a Facebook?”

“Yes. Would you like the Facebook?”

“Yes, please.”

“Pen.” Bella dug one out of her pocket, and her eyes widened slightly when Leah took the pen, caught her wrist, and scribbled out her email. “There. There are a surprising number of Leah Clearwaters on Facebook.” Bella cursed her damn-near-translucent skin when her face started to heat up. 

“Yeah. Just in case, maybe I should get your number, too.” Leah nodded thoughtfully.

“Good idea.” It took all of her willpower not to whimper, but she’d gotten her face under control by the time Leah handed her pen back to her. “Tell me who you are, yeah? I get a lot of wrong numbers.”

“Sure.”

When they wander back onto the beach, finding out that Leah was Sam’s girlfriend only broke through Bella’s haze enough that she felt slightly guilty when she went out of her way not to wash off the writing later.

~

They actually became pretty close friends, texting late into the night and well into the morning. They alternate visiting each other, their dads becoming friends after all the times one of them has to crash at the other’s house because it’s a little too late to go home.

Leah is who Bella’s texting with one day, after it’s been raining for a week and the puddles have turned into black ice. She puts her bag down on the hood of the truck and starts searching for her keys when she can hear the screech of tires over her headphones. 

She turns to see whassisface, Tyler, in his van, careening across the ice towards her. She takes a halting step back, realizing that she’s about to get crushed between the van and her truck. 

Bella ducked her head, squeezing her eyes shut, hoping it’ll be fast and painless, when she’s knocked over. When Bella opens her eyes and looks up, she sees that the only reason she isn’t so much Bella hamburger is because she’s been knocked over by Cullen, who stopped the van less than a foot from her head. She looks at the large dent his hand had put in the side of Tyler’s van, and then back at Cullen, who looks freaked.

Everyone’s screaming and running over, and Bella glances at the Cullen’s corner of the parking lot as she lies on the gurney being pushed towards the ambulance. They all look pissed.

~

Once Bella’s been checked out, Charlie comes running in, growling when Tyler tries to apologize. Again.

Dr Cullen comes before he can do any worse than taking Tyler’s license, giving her a final once over. Bella watches him carefully when she asks,

“It would have been a lot worse if Edward hadn't knocked me out of the way.” Charlie raises an eyebrow.

“Edward? Your boy?” If the way his gaze flew to her chart indicated anything, Bella had the feeling he knew what she was talking about.

“It was amazing he got to me so fast. He was nowhere near me.” Dr Cullen looked up with a smile that seems slightly forced.

“As long as you’re okay.”

~

As their leaving, Charlie goes to sign paperwork, leaving Bella to call Rene on his phone and assure her that no, her only daughter wasn’t dead. When she catches a glance of Edward, Rosalie, and Dr Cullen at the end of the hall, arguing, she pulls her phone out of her bag and goes to her chat with Leah. 

This is about when she realizes that she’d left Leah mid text, and Leah had started freaking out about 5 minutes ago.

After sending a text to tell _her_ she hadn’t died, she added _sleepover. tonight._

She got a near immediate reply. _Why? Nightmares?_

_Vampires._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jeez, thanks guys! I kept getting notifications about this, but I didn't realize how many till I actually came back to read through it! 
> 
> Please leave a comment, I'd love to hear what you guys think.
> 
> (Also, has this been recced or something? Cause I went from having barely any to a steady increase in kudos really fast.)
> 
> I'll try to get the next chapter up soonish, but I've been so busy, I have no idea when that might be.
> 
> Thank you all so much!

If Charlie’s surprised when they get home and Leah is waiting for them on the front porch, he doesn’t comment on her or the duffel next to her.

He also doesn’t comment on the way Leah drags Bella up the stairs the second he gets the door open and pulls her into her room. Leah pauses only to let the door close before enveloping Bella in a giant hug. 

Bella’s brains stutters slightly, but she hugs back, and _god_ does it feel good. She buries her face into Leah’s neck and lets herself be comforted.

It takes awhile, but they break apart and Leah and drags her over to the bed. She sits pretzel style at the end of the bed and Bella copies her, leaning carefully against the headboard.

“So?” Bella raises an eyebrow at Leah.

“Nu-uh. Sometime when you were telling all about this, you could totally have mentioned that it was all real.”

“In my defense, would you have believed me?”

“Well, _no_ , but it _would_ have given you the right to hear about it _before_ you apologized.” Leah raised an eyebrow, rolled her eyes, and sighed.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you that vampires and shapeshifters are real, even though it really wasn’t my fault and you totally wouldn’t believe me.”

“You don’t sound very contrite...”

“ _Bella._ ”

“Fine. I was texting you and I put my stuff down to get my keys, and then Tyler’s van skidded on some black ice and went careening across the parking lot, and Edward appeared out of nowhere, knocked me over, and put a dent in the side of Tyler’s van. And then Dr Cullen came and checked up on me, and he started acting really weird when I said Edward saved me, and then he and Edward and Rosalie were arguing in the hall after.” She swept her hand out in front of her. “And then I texted you, and that’s it.” She sighed, looking up at the ceiling. “It explains the changing eye color. When he feeds?”

“Yeah.”

“Isn’t it supposed to be red or something appropriately blood like?”

“That’s if they drank human blood. Remember how Jacob said that they were different than other vamps and that’s why we have the treaty?”

“Yeah?”

“They don’t eat humans. They eat wildlife.”

“Which is probably another reason why you made the treaty, so they wouldn’t accidently start nomming on one of you guys.” Leah nodded, and Bella cocked her head. “Are you going to turn into a giant wolf?”

“Nope. Only guys change.”

“Why, d’you think?”

“Because we start being werewolves because of traumatic and painful experiences, and girls are used to those because we get them every month.” They giggled until Bella accidently knocked the bruise against her headboard and leaned forward, groaning.

“ _Ow_.” She let Leah pull her forward, and rested her head on her knee, concentrating on Leah’s fingers carefully moving through her hair.

“Stay still, I’ll be right back.” Bella closed her eyes as the bed shifted and Leah disappeared out the door. She listened to her friend walk down the stairs, talk briefly with Charlie, and come back up. There was a crinkle of plastic and a wonderfully cool feeling crunched onto her head. Bella may have whimpered.

“Do you have a concussion?”

“No, or, at least, if I do, then no one told me about it.”

“Then I’m going to assume it’s okay for you to take a nap? Because you look like you need it.”

“Yeah.” Bella let Leah pull and push her till she was flat on the bed, wedging the bag of peas between the pillow and the bruise.

As she drifted off, she felt something warm all along her side. A small part of her brain told her that she probably should start freaking, but the rest of her was just too tired to care.

~

When she wakes up, she realizes why she probably should have been freaking out: that warm thing? Would _quite definitely_ be Leah, who was using the other side of her pillow and was still asleep.

Bella was really glad she had gotten her Big Gay Freakout done and over with, because doing it with this headache would have made her _cry_.

Instead, she carefully got out of bed, picking up the peas as she went, and went downstairs. She retrieved the Advil from the bathroom, took a couple, and then came back.

She’d be lying if she said that she didn’t ogle Leah’s stomach as she stretched awake, but Bella’d defy anyone _not_ to.

~

Bella gets the day off from school the next day, and Leah takes a day off with her. They spend a good two hours making up a texting code for supernatural instances.

Leah tells her about imprinting and how it’s really rare. She tells Bella about it being normal that giant wolves wander the rez every now and then.

And then she starts talking about her boyfriend, Sam, who disappeared and then came back, who won’t tell anyone where he went. 

“I’m trying to give him his space, but he gets this look sometimes...It scares me.” She rubbed her arm. “And he’s been acting really creepery around my cousin.”

~

Bella feels a little guilty for not being surprised when Leah calls her a couple weeks later, in tears, because Sam broke up with her. 

Two days before Emily leaves, Leah says Sam’s disappeared again. A week after Emily gets home, Leah calls and rants for an hour because apparently Sam left her to be with Emily. Bella holds her tongue when Leah expresses her confidence that Emily will reject him. The conversation is put on hold when Mike asks her to prom, and Bella hurriedly makes up a trip to Jacksonville. On the other end of the line, Leah sounds happy for the distraction.

“What’s in Jacksonville?”

“ _Stuff_.”

When they get to the college and Bella has to hang up, Edward swoops in to her side. And asks the exact same question. She gives him an eyebrow, ignoring his floundering and feeble attempts at justifying his ignoring her since the accident. She’s disproportionately grateful when Jessica skips over and tells her that Mike asked her to Prom.

Bella ignores Edward’s little temper tantrum (he’s seriously moving back into creepy territory here) and gets on her bus, smiling at Alice as she walks by.

~

Suddenly, it’s sunny for the first time since Bella arrived, and the Cullens aren’t there. Which is weird, because Bella assumed the undead couldn’t get sick. Jessica answers when she asks, basking in the barely present sun.

“Whenever the weather's nice, the Cullens disappear.”

“They ditch?”

“Nah, Dr and Mrs Cullen pull them out for camping trips. I tried to get my parents to go for that. No dice.”

Angela near knocks Bella over with her excitement, nearly vibrating with glee when she tells them that Eric said he’d go to Prom with her.

“We need to go to Port Angeles before all the dresses are gone.” Bella looked up, the name reminding her of a bookstore she’d seen the address of when Leah had been proving that she had gotten the names right on a Quileute story. If they had more books about vamps...

“Can I come?”

“Thank god, we need a tiebreaker.”

Not what she had in mind, but okay...

~

“Bella?” 

She looked over the Mapquest again, mentally planning her route.

“ _Bella_.” Bella looked up at Jessica.

“Yeah, It looks great.”

“You said that about the last three dresses.” Angela looked sympathetic.

“You’re not very good at this, are you.” Bella shook her head and stuffed the Mapquest into her bag.

“I’ll go check out the bookstore and meet you at the restaurant later, okay?” She waited for nods before making her escape.

~

Bella admits freely that she had not been paying attention as she left the bookstore, but come on. It’s not like people expect that kind of thing from a small town in the middle of nowhere.

So, yes, she was surprised when she got to the parking lot and she was surrounded by _really_ drunk frat boys.

“Wanna drink?” Bella pulled her bag off.

“Look, just take my bag.”

“We don’t want your _bag_.” Bella shifted her weight and wrapped her purse around her hand. They assembled laughed until she swung it right into the closest one’s groin and he went over. Thank _god_ for that book.

She was beginning to realize that she really wasn’t going to be able to pull it off again when she was blinded by the glare of headlights.

Edward gets out and glares, sending the frat boys running on pure instinct. He looks at Bella with something that was slightly softer, but still all kinds of animal crazy.

“Get in.”

“No.”

“Bella.”

“No. I really do not want to be in an enclosed space with you, especially with you that angry.” She turned and continued on her way to the restaurant, ignoring the way his glare etched into the back of her neck as she pulled out her phone and called Angela.

~

By the time they get home, Charlie is sitting on the couch with a bottle of beer and watching television. Or, pretending to, because Bella knows for a fact that Charlie _hates_ basketball with a burning passion.

She sits next to him on the couch, curling into his side. She smiles slightly when his arm wraps around her shoulders and squeezes.

“What’s up?”

“Waylon Forge was found in the woods. It looks like an animal attack.”

“Same kind that got the guard in Mason?”

“Yeah.” Bella files that away to review at a later date. “We’re going to get it, Bella, but until then,” He unwrapped his arm and went into his chest pocket, pulling out a canister of mace. “I want you to carry this.”

“That’s probably not good.”

“It’ll give me some piece of mind.” Bella nodded, sticking it into her bag.

She tries not to think about the look on Edward’s face earlier as Charlie realizes what he’d been watching and changes the channel.

~

She has a nightmare about the Cullens, and it doesn’t help that she hears a _snap_ outside her window. She reaches next to her bed and pulls the mace out of her bag before flicking on the lights and padding over to the window, pushing it open.

There isn’t anything there but the wind, but she still locks the window and pulls the curtain closed before getting back in bed and pulling out her book.

~

Objectively, yes, she knows it’s stupid and really dangerous.

But she still comes into school, makes a point of making eye contact with Edward, and walking into the woods.

She knows he’s there when all of a sudden the forest goes quiet.

She takes a deep breath.

“You're impossibly fast. And strong. Your skin is pale-white, ice-cold. Your eyes change color. And sometimes you speak like... you're from a different time.” She turned, facing him. He looks like he’s about to throw up, but then again, he usually looks like he’s about to throw up. “You never eat food, or drink, or come out in the sunlight. And you said no to the beach trip only after you heard where it was. Because of the treaty.” He looked up, like he was shocked she knew that. She stuck her hands in her pockets, cocking her head. “How old are you, anyway.” He answers fast, now obviously rehearsed.

“Seventeen.” Bella raised an eyebrow.

“And how long have you been seventeen?” The corner of his mouth twitched up.

“A while.” There was a pregnant pause.

“So, I’m assuming you’re not a Buffy vampire?” He stiffened slightly, but shook his head.

“No.” He cocked his head. “Are you afraid?”

“Yes. I’d be stupid not to.” He relaxed until she opened her mouth again. “But not because you might eat me, because apparently you’re different. Because you get this look sometimes, Cullen, that makes me worry about people’s physical wellness, not least of whose mine. She walked back towards the school, patting his arm as she went past. “See you in Bio.”

She was halfway back when a breeze ripped past her. She eyed the figure who’d suddenly appeared at the bottom of the hill.

“Show off.”

~

She was doing her homework when she realized what had seemed off about the last few days-

She hadn’t heard from Leah.

She sent a IM on Facebook, followed by a text. She got through her Bio homework before Bella broke and called her.

The phone almost went to voicemail when it got picked up and there was the sound of heavy, wet breathing on the other end. Bella pushed herself up, worried.

“Leah? Leah, is that you? What’s wrong?”

“Bella?” Leah’s voice sounded raspy and abused.

“Leah?”

“Are you at your house?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Meet me in your backyard.”

“Why? What happened?”

“I went to London.” Bella froze. In their supernatural code, it was London as in Werewolves of.

“ _What_? But I thought that you said-”

“Soon.” With that, the line went dead, and Bella stared at it as if it had done her a personal wrong. 

How was this even her life?

~

She was downstairs and in the backyard with a wrap dress, a blanket, and a book. She lay out the blanket and lay down on it, trying to read between glances at the woods.

Bella glanced up and froze when she saw Leah.

Because it was obviously Leah, for all that she was a giant gray wolf. She moved with the same confidence, and her eyes were the same. The only difference was that Leah was usually much _more_ confidence. This wolf had her tail tucked firmly between her legs.

Leah padded over and collapsed on the blanket, where Bella could see how red her eyes were. Bella carefully shook out the dress and draped it over her.

Leah shifted back, moving only to pull on the dress and tie the front before curling up again. Bella hovered a hand over Leah’s side before pulling her hand back into her lap.

“What happened?” Leah didn’t answer, her throat working convulsively. Bella got up, patting Leah’s shoulder, and retrieving a glass of water.

Leah took a gulp and curled up again.

“Emily told Sam to go back to me, and he said no because he didn’t want to hurt me. They got into a fight, and Sam shifted, slashing Emily’s face and arm open. He was feeling sorry for himself in the woods when Emily got him to the hospital and told him she forgave him.” Leah closed her eyes, coughing up a laugh. “I don’t even care about Sam anymore, I don’t even get why I’m crying about him. I sort of hate him now, honestly.” Bella swallowed the survival instinct telling her to stay away and gently lay a hand on Leah’s side, rubbing up and down her ribcage. Leah noticeably relaxed, if only a little.

“What happened to you, though? I thought you said that only guys could shift.”

“That’s what everybody thought. But then I heard about it, and I got so _angry_ , and then-” She breathed; Bella rubbed. “Then I turned. And Dad freaked out and had a heart attack. They took him to the hospital, Bella, but it doesn’t look good.” Bella leaned against Leah’s back, thinking.

“Okay, so I can’t promise it’ll all be alright, but I can promise that I’ll try and help you get through it. Okay?” Leah looked over and nodded slowly.

“Okay.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much! I'm still getting so many notifications from this, I never knew this would be this popular!
> 
> Leave a comment, lemme know what you think!

Bella gets Leah up and to her room, letting her borrow a bra and undies and a old pair of flats, before grabbing Leah a hoodie and dragging her out of the house and into the truck. 

 

Leah pulled on the hoodie and leaned back, sniffing the air. Bella glanced at her.

 

“What?”

 

“Nothing. It’s just- everything smells more.”

 

“Sorry.”

 

“No, it’s not really a bad thing.” Bella could see Leah looking at her in her peripheral. “At least, not right now.” Bella tamps down the blush to the best of her ability, covering by checking the rearview mirror.

 

“Alright, do you want to stop for coffee or go back to the rez?”

 

“Depends, is there tea at this coffee place? I need to calm down, not start vibrating.”

 

“Pretty sure.”

 

“Then tea first.”

 

Bella nodded and then carefully navigated into town, stopping in front of the coffee shop. She ignored the stares of her classmates as she lead Leah up to the counter and they ordered, Bella making sure that the conversation was kept as far from anything supernatural or wolf related as she possibly could, repressing a arm-pump of success at Leah’s almost smile at the hot chocolate hidden under a small mountain of whipped cream she got instead of a tea.

 

The closer they got to the hospital, however, and the more Bella saw Leah tense up, and to be completely honest, she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to fix it, or what the cause was, and how the actual fuck she was supposed to ask about it. Was it the Cullens? Or the other wolves? Or was it just that her dad was in the hospital? If Charlie was in the hospital cause of something she’d done - Bella took a deep breath and straightened her back against the seat. Best she could do, she reasoned, was to be there for Leah. Charlie wouldn’t mind if she stayed over for a while, would he? 

 

It took her pulling into the spot in the hospital parking lot, turning off the car, gathering her stuff, and getting out to do a visual sweep for any free Cullens when she realized that Leah hadn’t moved a muscle. Ducking back, Bella leaned against the door frame of the driver’s seat. 

 

“You ready to get out?” Leah blinked hard as she startled at Bella before shaking her head and (embarrassingly obviously) attempting to collect herself.   
“No, yeah, I’m fine, I just got a leg cramp, gimme a second.” Bella fought her right eyebrow’s attempt at an ascent as Leah started rolling her ankle at an half-hearted attempt to fake stretching.

 

“Mmkay. You’re taking this better than I would - well, did - well, kinda. Renee tripped and fell - if you were wondering where my god-like coordination came from - and they wouldn’t tell me or Phil what happened and I couldn’t physically make myself leave the car, cause, like, it made it less real? Hospitals are kinda liminal spaces anyway, but, like, the second I walked in there and talked to a Doctor it made it real that mom was in there and hurt and no one would tell me anything. Didn’t end op being much, she just hit her head and the cut was bleeding a lot - cause, you know, head wound, they do that - and the person who called 911 freaked the fuck out and by the time the EMTs got there she was convinced that Mom was about to fall into a coma. So. Like. Yeah.” 

 

Bella glanced back into the parking lot in hopes that the cooler air would cool down her cheeks from the latent babble - induced embarrassment as she heard Leah huff out a laugh and slowly get out of the car. Bella leaned back against the metal, tracing her fingers along the barely-there crease that was the only reminder of the giant dent that had been in it the last time she was there. She startled slightly when a hand took hers, and she looked over at Leah as she settled against the truck next to her.

 

“What if he dies? And it’s my fault?”

 

“I mean. How would it be your fault?”

 

“My change is what triggered his heart attack?”

 

“Did anyone think you were gonna change?”

 

“Well, no, but-”

 

“Did you know that you were gonna change?”

 

“No, that’s not the-”

 

“Then I don’t see how it’s anyone’s fault. Shit happens sometimes.”

 

 

Leah almost crushed Bella’s hand when they walked into the waiting room and she saw Sam sitting there, having a perfectly cordial conversation with Seth and Jacob. The entire atmosphere of the room changed, and Bella could practically see the hair start to stand up on the back of Leah’s neck down between her shoulder blades as her hackles raised. 

 

She squeezed Leah’s hand as hard as she could before making eye contact with Mrs Clearwater and walking over.

 

“Ma’am, I’m so sorry to hear about your husband. Have they told you anything?” Bella watched the woman’s eyes slide off Bella’s face and over her shoulder to her daughter, where her expression turned into something that was a mix of sympathy and light terror before Bella tilted her head and she snapped back to the conversation.

 

“Thank you, my dear, and they’re not sure. He’s a little touch and go at the moment, but the doctors have high hopes we’ll get to see him soon. Leah?” Leah’s gaze snapped back from her ex boyfriend, who was curled in his seat in a position that could only be called ‘kicked puppy’ and over to her mother, her eyes near immediately filling with tears.

 

“M-mom-”

 

“Oh, come here, baby.” Bella sidestepped out of the way as Leah practically tripped into her mother’s arms, her sobs muffled by Mrs Clearwater’s fluffy sweater. The others in the room - her pack, Bella’s brain helpfully supplied - came forward one by one and added to the group hug, Sam hanging to the back. 

 

They were still like that when Charlie and Dr Cullen walked in, and the two had almost identical expressions of sympathy and bemusement as they registered what was in front of them. Charlie shifted awkwardly back and forth before Bella hugged him tightly, his arms almost immediately wrapping around her and pulling her close. 

 

“Mrs, Ms, and Mr Clearwater?” Leah, Seth, and their mother looked up from their spot in the middle of the hug. “Mr Clearwater is awake, and he wants to see you. Especially you, Leah.”

 

They left, Leah squeezing Bella’s hand as she walked past, and Bella carefully didn’t comment when the pack member’s left behind started getting sniffly about 5 minutes later. 

 

 

As Charlie was asked in to say goodbye to Harry, Leah walked over to Bella, tears in her eyes, but smiling.

 

“How’d it go?”

 

“He apologized for not teaching me more. He said he’s proud of me. He said it wasn’t my fault.” Bella pulled Leah into a hug, not commenting about how wet her shoulder got. “Bella?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Thanks for making sure I was here. I don’t want to think about what would have happened if I hadn’t been.”

 

“It’s no problem. Promise.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for all of your comments and kudos! I keep meaning to update this, and getting distracted, but the notifications from you guys always give me the warm fuzzies. Hope you like this, and please leave a comment telling me about what you liked! Hopefully it won't be a year before I can update this again. :3

Bella was Not Freaking Out.

Leah had gone home with her family, and had assured her that if she needed anything, she'd let Bella know. She and Charlie had gone home themselves, Bella quietly grateful that her father hadn't noticed that she was avoiding making eye contact with Dr Cullen.

Dinner was a blur, and Bella had retreated up to the bathroom with Pride and Prejudice to soak in the tub and Not Freak Out.

She was mostly failing.

There were werewolves ( _shape shifters_ , her brain supplied, but it was quickly drowned in her belated supernatural epiphany) and vampires and how in the actual fuck did she not only manage to come to the hub of supernatural activity, but somehow managed to get stuck in the middle of it.

Fuck, this shit only happened in half-assed teen fiction; why _her_? Why did _she_ have to be the one that the _one_ single vampire and the _one_ female werewolf have to be interested, platonically or otherwise? Why did the wrong one have to be the one that was interested in her non-platonically?

She finally got out and into her pjs before padding into her room, getting all the way to her end table before she noticed that the shape of the tree outside her window was wrong.

Bella gritted her teeth through a huff, and glared directly at the masses eyes, decidedly done with everything.

“Edward Cullen, you're a creepy fucking stalker and if you think I wouldn't make a loud scene about this with my father and your family, you _clearly_ underestimate how little patience I have for your dumb ass infringing on my personal space because you’re Victorian sensibilities thinks that it's cute. Fuck _off_.”

If a mass of shadows could look like a kicked puppy, this one did. Bella was not moved.

“I'm sorry-”

“FUCK _OFF_!”

The tree went back to the right shape, and Bella huffed, and jumped slightly at a light knock on her door. Charlie looked concerned as she opened her door.

“Bella?”

“Sorry, Dad, some guy at school was being creepy as hell and didn't seem to understand why I wasn't happy about it?”

“Is there someone I need to have a talk with?” Bella smiled: Charlie, at the very least, was unchanged in her life. She could depend on him.

“Not at the moment, but if that changes, you will be the first to know.”

~

Bella did not sleep well that night, knowing that there was a vampiric fuckboi who had decided that staring at her while she slept was in some way _not_ creepy.

She managed to hedge her annoyance till lunch, when Jessica leaned across the table.

“Edward Cullen is staring at you.” There was something about Jessica’s stage whisper, and knowing that Cullen could hear her was, inevitably, the straw that broke the camel’s back.

She snatched her lunch bag up, sweeping her lunch back into it as she got up.

“Bella-”

“I'm having a Day, I think I'm going to quarantine myself until my mood gets it’s shit together.” She stomped across the cafeteria, taking a quiet sick pleasure in the way Cullen’s eyes widened in shock as she slammed her hands down on the table. She sucked in a deep breath and kept her voice down to a whisper: the clan would hear her fine, even if the human occupants of the suddenly silent cafeteria couldn't.

“I could not sleep last night because I every time I closed my eyes, I would remember that there was a _vintage_ _fuckboi_ who decided I wasn't allowed personal space. It is going to take me _weeks_ to get over that and fix my sleep schedule. If you even _think_ about coming back, I will absolutely not even hesitate to follow through with my threat, and I'll get the newspaper to live stream it to Facebook if I absolutely have to. I don't know what gave you the idea that that would be any kind of appropriate, but if you try it again on anyone in this town, you will regret it as long as _you_ live.”

“You really want to be making threats, _human_?” Bella glared down at Emmett, even as Alice elbowed him in the ribs.

“You want to threaten the daughter of the sheriff? It's not gonna do anything for you but raise the number of people that'd be watching you like a hawk, and you wouldn't want to do anything that'd threaten your _treaty_ , would you?”

Bella straightened, satisfied at the mixture of shocked and annoyed faces at the table before her (except for Alice, who looked proud; she knew that girl was her favorite Cullen) and glared back at Edward as she pitched her voice loud enough that the rest of the still too quiet cafeteria could hear her.

“I'm serious, asshole, at least pretend that it's a group project, you're nowhere near as smart as you seem to think you are.”

~

Bella was trying very hard to not be overcome by petty glee by the surprising number of people who came over to congratulate her for standing up to the Cullens.

She was failing.


End file.
